Hearts Resistance
by FrozenXIII'sFire
Summary: When a group of senators take over the town of Lumina, most citizens give up hope of a free life. Things get worse when the Guardians are released into the streets. A small group of teenagers with a bone to pick with them have formed the Resistance. AU
1. Just Another Mission

The night was dark and empty. Stars shone brightly in the sky. Looking up, it seemed almost peaceful. Looking down, there was a battle going on.

A loud explosion was heard coming from the senator's district. Anyone close enough saw an orange and red burst come from a building and send bricks and furniture in every direction. The call to the Guardians was put out immediately.

But the rebels were faster than that.

As fast as the explosion itself, five black figures dashed away from the scene as fast as possible to avoid detection. It would've been a failure if they had been caught after such a miraculous explosion.

Sora Rokujo was one of these "black figures".

With a smile apparent on his face, he took to the alleys as the explosion made his silhouette stand out like an ink blot on paper. He was still in the alleys faster than possible detection.

Suddenly, a little voice echoed from a device in his ear.

"_Soul Eater to Kingdom Key, do you copy?" _A deeper voice stated into the device.

Sora brushed his brown spiky hair backwards and pressed a button on his transceiver.

"_This is Kingdom Key. What's the situation Soul Eater?" _He replied, never stopping for a second. His outfit was tailored to make him go as fast as possible. From his black and red sneakers to his black sweat pants and long t-shirt, he was dressed for success. He wasn't even wearing his vest or large amount of belts. He wanted to avoid as much weight as possible.

"_The operation went off without a hitch," _Soul Eater explained. They all had code names over the wire to minimize the chances they would be discovered. _"We're all meeting at rendezvous point B, Kingdom Key. Get there as fast as possible without being spotted."_

"_Yes sir!"_ Sora said with great enthusiasm.

"_Good, over and out."_ Soul Eater hung up after this.

Sora pulled up his fingerless black gloves and glanced over his shoulder quickly. He was glad to see he wasn't being followed.

If only he hadn't looked back too soon. It was too late for Sora to get out of the way when he collided face-first with a Guardian.

"Ow!" He grunted. "Hey, watch where yo-" He cut himself off. He had slammed into a large Guardian who was at least a head taller than Sora.

"Gotcha." He snarled. He reached for Sora, but the young boy was much more agile. Sora rolled out of the way and got up into a fighting position. At the same time, a bright light filled his hand, forming quickly a large blade in the shape of a key.

"No, I think I've got you!" He replied in a cocky fashion. The Guardian looked angry, but he drew his own weapon, a large harpoon shaped like an anchor that would have taken three Soras just to lift. Let alone throw it.

Yet, this soldier could swing it over his head like it was no one's business. After spinning it a few times, he hurled it in Sora's direction.

Sora jumped out of the way and rebounded off the nearby wall, using the harpoon that was now wedged into the concrete to get back to the ground. Now weapon less, the guard ran towards Sora and launched his large fist at him. Sora ducked underneath and slammed the golden key into his side. The black-haired guard let out a gasp of air as Sora spun around him and jumped at him for another strike. The Guardian pulled the harpoon out of the ground and batted Sora away like a pesky fly. Sora hit the ground hard, his right arm being wounded in the process. He grasped his injured arm with his other hand, the key dangling limply from the hand of his wounded arm. He was panting heavily.

"Dammit…" Sora gasped through clenched teeth. Pain shot through his arm. There was no way he could wield his weapon with a useless arm.

The Guardian seemed to realize this as a malicious smile came to his face. As far as he was concerned he had won. His boss would definitely give him a raise if he could bring in a member of the resistance. He grasped the harpoon with strength and prepared a final throw.

"I'm gonna have fun bringin' you in." He chuckled.

Sora stepped back with a pained look on his face. He wasn't scared, but the fact he was utterly useless left him no other choice. His chances of running away were slim, since the Guardian could throw that harpoon really far. He was ready to accept his fate when the Guardian stopped in his tracks.

Sora looked up at him and saw the look of shock in his eyes. A black and intricate Key blade was coming out of his chest. The guard fell to his knees, revealing a hooded figure from behind him.

"Roxas…" Sora muttered.

The hooded boy pulled back his hood to reveal his dazzling blue eyes and messy blond hair. His facial features were very similar to that of Sora, but if you asked either of them, they would say they weren't related.

Some people in the resistance still didn't believe that.

"Wow you're slow," Roxas smirked. Sora grimaced in reply and looked over to the exit of the alley, making sure there was no one watching from the street.

"I'm injured, okay?" Sora snapped. Roxas' smile grew larger as he walked over to examine the arm. Without any compliance from Sora, Roxas tore through his sleeve to examine the wound.

"Hey! How do you even know where I was hit?"

"I watched you get your ass kicked. It was kinda funny…" Roxas chuckled.

Sora's face twisted with rage, but he did nothing but wince as Roxas ripped the sleeve and prodded the wound, which had begun to start bleeding near the center of the reddish black mark.

"Were gonna need Aerith to look at this." He said sheepishly. In his opinion, it didn't look good.

With a quick false bandage formed from the ripped sleeve, they took off across the street and into the other alley.

The twisted through the alleys of Lumina City, carefully avoiding any people they could see. It wouldn't be a good idea for them to be seen. They were wanted by the senate after all.

It was when they made it to the pier that they finally slowed down. Roxas started looking around the back of one of the old boat houses. He moved his fingers around the wall slowly until he found what he was looking for. With a smile, he tapped the part of the wall, and stood still as a nearby dumpster swung open. He looked to Sora, who nodded slowly as he jumped in.

Sora took a final look around and jumped into the metal box.

The chute was short, but it did the job. No one collected garbage at the docks anymore, so it was the perfect place for a base.

A base for the Hearts Resistance.

There wasn't much to see as they dropped in; just a heavy door with a small keypad installed to act as another security measure. The resistance wasn't taking any chances.

Roxas was standing there tapping his foot to the ground. "Are you ready yet?" He asked.

"Just open the door." Sora snapped.

A smug grin came to Roxas' face as he quickly input the code and opened the door. On the other side, a table covered in maps of Lumina City. Several places were outlined in red and pins stuck up from the maps.

"We're back!" Sora yelled.

It was silent for a moment, but then, a puff of smoke appeared and a young ninja jumped out of it.

"There you guys are!" She said as she landed.

"Everyone back yet, Yuffie?" Roxas questioned.

The ninja smiled and turned away for a second, walking across the room while scuffing her shoes across the floor.

"Uh-huh! They got back a few minutes ago. Aerith nearly threw a fit when she noticed you guys weren't there."

Sora and Roxas looked at each other for a second, looking for someone to blame, but they quickly understood what had happened. Sora's fight had taken a long time, so they had to have left before then. They made rules about leaving a rendezvous after ten minutes.

_Was it really that long? _ Sora thought to himself.

"Well, we're here now!" Sora said with a smile, throwing his good arm around Roxas' neck.

Roxas pushed him away. "Let go of me." He grunted before throwing his hood back over his head. Roxas wasn't ever that social. He only ever got that snarky when Sora was the only one around.

Well, him or Axel, that is.

Sora had spaced out a little, but he was brought back down when Yuffie started to poke his arm. He cried out in pain and shook her off, but she was quick to poof away before that was even possible. He let out a sigh before walking out of the small room and down the hallway.

The hall was lit by a few fluorescent lights that came from the ceiling. Multiple doors lined the hallways, each leading to a bedroom of sorts and all painted black. Some had stickers or nameplates stuck on them. The end of the hall led to the meeting room, a small room where most of the planning was made and the living room. (Hey, even rebels needed some down time.) That room had a small T.V. with a few game consoles connected to it and two rather worn down couches. Finally, there was a small kitchen, which was probably the cleanest place in the whole base. It practically shone white from all the cleaning it went through. There was a small table there that was supposedly for eating, but most people just ate in their rooms anyways.

The room Sora was heading to was the meeting room. It was normal to get debriefed after a mission. Being already late, he sped down the hall and through the dark red door of the room.

"Sora! What took you so long?" A redheaded girl ran out from her seat and embraced him, taking him completely off guard. She had a small black clip in her hair that matched her black tee shirt. A heart logo was located near her actual heart. She also wore some black sweat pants and running shoes. It was rather strange seeing her in black, since her normal clothes were often bright coloured. Even she knew that it was necessary to wear black for a night time mission.

"Hey..Kairi…" Sora struggled to say through her strong grasp on him.

"Whatever…" The silver haired Riku interrupted. "Well, now that he's here, we can debrief."

Sora took a seat near the end of the table, right beside Kairi. Roxas was leaning against a wall at the back. Nobody seemed to see him come in late.

"Well, as far as we're concerned, the mission was a success." Riku announced. He pressed a little button at the top of a table and stepped out of the way as a digital screen fell from the ceiling and lit up with a Heart logo similar to the one located on Kairi's shirt.

The screen changed quickly to an overhead map of Lumina City.

"Tonight we took out the house of Senator Vexen, one of the leaders of New Lumina. He wasn't as important as Senator Xemnas, but he was one of the leading science researchers. With him out of the way, it will certainly make taking this town back easier."

"The ride certainly ain't over." An older teen spoke. His spikey hair was very long and his two tear tattoos were clearly visible on his face.

"I'm fully aware of that, Axel." Riku retorted. "Anyways, I say we should lay low for a few days before we take on another mission."

"Good. Some of you look exhausted…" The older girl in a pink dress stated. Aerith was pretty much the "mother" of the resistance. She was constantly worried about the condition of the teenagers.

The meeting was brought to a close and the teens went in their own directions. Most went to their rooms afterwards, but Sora followed Aerith to the kitchen.

"Uhh… Aerith…"

"You want me to fix your arm, wouldn't you?"

Sora didn't have a chance to reply as a sphere of greenish energy emerged from her hands and fell upon his arm, causing the arm to heal up, leaving only a dull bruise.

"Thanks Aerith…"

"Just don't get hurt too often." She replied, giving a cheerful smile, yet there was something about it that hid a "I'll kill you if it happens again" sort of personality.

Sora dashed out of the room as quickly as possible and ran for the room of his own. He didn't really notice before how tired he was, but that Cure from Aerith had seemed to take some energy from him as well. It was just as well, as it was way past midnight anyways.


	2. Intel

It had happened a few months ago. It was then that a civil war ended. To anyone with any sanity, the war seemed to emerge from nothing.

Though the aftermath was real enough.

To put it in the best terms, Lumina had lost to several people who referred to themselves as "The Senate." From there, the City became its own independent country, and was dictated by The Senate.

They started making changes right away.

The first thing to happen was complete isolation. No one was allowed to leave the city and no one was allowed to come in, thus effectively preventing help from coming in from the outside. The drafting happened next. All strong and able bodied men and children were taken next. No one knows what they were used for, but all knew that they were never seen again.

Taxes were inflated to astronomical amounts, sending the once lustrous City of Lumina into a state of poverty while senators live the life of celebrities. The ones who sided with the Senate were given much better living conditions than the rest of the city and became Guardians or scientists working inside the strange laboratories of the Senate.

It was because of this that the Hearts Resistance was formed. All the teens in the group either had their families taken away (The girls were all in this category) or they were to be drafted, but escaped in the nick of time. They all agreed that things needed to be changed.

Sora couldn't wait until things returned to the way they were.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled into his ear.

He jumped out of his own world in shock and looked up to the girl looming above him.

"Did I zone out again?" He asked.

Kairi nodded and tried to look frustrated, but she couldn't hide the smile appearing on her face. She was wearing skinny jeans and a white shirt with a pink jacket at the moment.

They were found standing on the roof of the local supermarket. It was a spot Sora came to often after getting breakfast from the bakery below. The resistance was supported by many in Lumina, so they often got food and other things for free, even though wanted posters of all the members were pasted all over town.

"Hey, it's not funny!" Sora exclaimed, but he wanted to smile just as much. He jumped to his feet, so he was taller than Kairi and pulled a small card out of his pocket.

"So, what did the Boss want us to do again?" Kairi asked, peering over in an attempt to see the card.

"Why is Riku the boss again?" Sora asked, envy clearly heard in his voice. Sora liked being in charge of things, so the fact someone beside himself was in charge made him angry. It was made worse by the fact that his childhood friend was the one to lead.

"We all agreed that he had the best idea of how to lead." She replied calmly.

"Well, whatever," He said, letting out a puff of air in frustration. "Anyways, we need to visit our Intel base to see what the Sens have been up to."

Sen was a short form of Senator that was used often by many citizens.

"Oh, good!" Kairi said cheerfully. "It's been awhile since I've seen Naminé!"

A small smile came to Sora's face as he grabbed her hand. "Well, what're we waiting for?" He chuckled.

With a bright smile from Kairi, they made their way to a ladder at the end of the roof and climbed downwards. If they were to get some time off, they would need to finish the mission quickly.

"Ummm…Axel, is this really a good idea?" Roxas asked nervously. At the moment, they were standing in an alley close to the Senator district. Roxas was wearing his usual white jacket and black shirts and pants. Axel, on the other hand, he wore classic navy jeans with a black leather belt. He also wore a long sleeved red shirt with a black flame decal on front. He was in a typical slouched posture leaning against the wall with his hands in his pocket.

"Relax Rox," Axel smirked. "All we gotta do is go around the back, listen in on the Sens' meeting and report back to Intel. Got it memorized?"

Roxas nodded, but his still looked a little worried. It was rather unusual for Axel and Roxas to be on a mission for just the two of them.

It also didn't help that Roxas suspected Axel had come up for this mission by himself.

" Now, from here, we need to get to the back of the Senator complex. It would be best if we had disguises though…" Axel rambled on.

At the mention of the word "disguises", Roxas was prepared to flee. Axel was a bit of a schemer, but any one of his schemes involving disguises usually ended in disaster. It was a bigger problem that Roxas was already there.

There was no hope of escaping.

Roxas was shocked back into reality when Axel began shaking him.

"Earth to Roxas, it's time to get started. Can't have you zoning out on the mission, got it memorized?"

With those words, Roxas was dragged into another hair brained scheme.

For a resistance group made of mostly teenagers, they seemed to know what they were doing. This much could be told by the fact that there were 28 hidden bases scattered around the city in case it was impossible to return to the main one. The fact they had an Intel base told many things about the group as well.

It was true that Riku was decided upon as the leader of the resistance, but he had a lot of help.

Sora would never let him forget that.

But, despite Riku's abilities at leading a group, he was by no stretch of the imagination the best at everything. Sure, he knew how to create plans.

But when it came to gathering information, Zexion was king.

When Sora and Kairi walked up to the "abandoned" communication tower, Zexion knew exactly which path they took, how much time they had wasted goofing off, and he knew exactly how many steps they had taken to get there.

He was that good.

"Can someone go and bring Sora and Kairi up here?" Zexion asked, never pulling his nose out of the rather large book he was reading.

No one was surprised anymore by Zexion knowing they were already there.

Zexion kept his hair going at a diagonal down his face, covering one of his eyes. His preferred clothing choice was a pair of jeans and a black hoodie. He didn't care for fashion that much and would much rather spend his time reading than talking to someone.

"I'll get it," An eager voice called from the corner. A young girl around Sora and Kairi's age jumped from her seat and ran to the small elevator that had power fed to it through the a little "tweaking" with the powerline, as Yuffie would've said.

At the bottom of the tower, Sora was looking up with a large smile. It had been awhile since he had time to visit Intel.

"Head up in the clouds again, Sora?" A quiet voice asked.

"Naminé!" Kairi squealed with glee.

She ran towards one of her closest friends and embraced her in a firm hug. Naminé didn't hesitate to hug back.

"Hi, Kairi," Naminé said with a calm smile. " C'mon, Zexion is waiting for you."

Sora just shrugged and walked onto the small lift of the dark and metallic tower. Before the Sens had barged in, the Com Tower had always lit up at night with bright colours, to show how they were always working.

That was one of the things Sora missed about the old Lumina.

Before he knew it, Sora was being lifted up the elevator towards the Intel base. He wasn't surprised to see Zexion laying lax on a chair with his face burrowed in a book.

"Ahh, Sora, I can't say it's really a surprise to see you here…" Zexion mumbled.

Sora, resisting the urge to slap their Intel leader across the face, walked over to Zexion and held out the card, waiting for Zexion to take it. Kairi had disappeared with Naminé into the back room, most likely to see the art gallery that had built up.

"Is Riku planning something large back at base? This is a rather unusual request…" Zexion said, suddenly getting more interested as he leaned forward towards the panel on the ledge of the window. He flipped up a white laptop that had been set up and, after waiting for it to load; he searched through several files and finally came to what he was looking for.

"Here we go… The Heartless factories… I wonder what they do? Or, what is a Heartless, for that matter?"

Sora rolled his eyes. "I have a feeling you're going to tell me…"

"A Heartless is a type of creature that feeds on other people…" A quiet voice came from the other doorway.

Naminé had emerged from her room with a sketch book in her hands. She clutched it close to her chest and walked over to Sora with Kairi trailing right behind her.

It didn't take her long to find the page she was looking for. A small black creature with glowing eyes was depicted on the page. It looked rather harmless on paper, but based on how she described it, they were probably quite the opposite.

"So that's what Riku's planning," Kairi spoke up. She seemed rather unfazed by the picture, but Sora wasn't either.

" I forwarded all of the Intel to the his computer. Well, I believe that's all you came for," Zexion said quietly, still making no eye contact. He waved them away, without as much as a grunt.

If you hadn't figured it out, Sora despised Zexion.

It was then that something occurred to Sora.

"Hey, Zexion… Do you know what happened Cloud?"

Zexion, surprisingly, he actually put the card from Sora into his book as a book mark and put it down. His emerald eyes meeting with Sora's clear blue eyes.

"I have no idea."

Roxas wasn't enjoying the plan that much. Thankfully, Axel had decided that hiding their faces with ski masks was a better disguise than what he normally chose. But besides that, nothing good had really happened.

Much could be said by the fact Axel was using him as a footstool to look over the walls of the Sens district.

"Axel…" He grunted through gritted teeth, trying to keep his attention away from the leather boots digging into his back. Roxas probably would've knocked him of by now if he wasn't so heavy.

"Shaddup!" He snapped back. "They're just about to start, so stay quiet! Got it memorized?"

Roxas, groaned. But he complied. He could tell they had started talking by the fact Axel was actually being quiet for once. Sadly, Roxas couldn't hear anything from his position on the ground.

Laying on the ground did give him some time to reflect on things, seeing as there was nothing else to do.

Roxas had grown up in Lumina with Sora's family. They were cousins and his only family left, so that's where he was sent when his mom had passed away. He was only five at the time and it was the only place that Roxas had ever called home.

Which is why he was fighting so hard to protect it.

He had met Axel a year or two later and they had been friends ever since. Axel may have like fire a little too much, but Roxas was always the one to get out of trouble. And well, that had been getting much more difficult than it used to be.

"Uhh, Rox," Axel whispered. He had jumped off Roxas' back without him even noticing. "We gotta go. Now."

Roxas didn't even have a chance to stand up. Axel had already grabbed him and pulled him away at breakneck speed. Roxas managed to recover his footjng and kept up with the red-head.

"Axel, what happened? " Roxas asked quickly.

A sly, yet nervous smile came to his face, which made Roxas worry. Axel was never nervous.

"Things are about to get difficult, my friend…"

From the top of the Mythril Corp. building, a shadow of a tall man stood, his face covered by a black mask. He stood there, constantly waiting and thinking. There was something that he was prepared for. Something that he wanted. Something that he knew he could get in the city.

"Orichalcum…" He muttered. Then, with a final look over the city, he walked towards the direction of the setting sun and disappeared from site.

He came to get what he wanted, and he wasn't leaving without it.

Even if everything had to die first.

**Author's Note: Thank You for the reviews! I'm glad people liked it. I was trying to go for something new and refreshing.**

**When it comes to the cast, relax, I have plans for many of them. (Read: I'll put them in if a situation demands it, but I do have roles that need to be filled…)**

**I plan to update at least once a week, so stick around for more… HEARTS RESISTANCE.**

**Bye!**

**-FrozenXIII'sFire**


	3. Operation: Shadow Killer

"You can't be serious…" Roxas stammered. They sat in Axel's news in the moment as he told Roxas the news of what he had heard.

"I wouldn't be telling you if it wasn't true," Axel replied from his spot on his desk.

Axel's room was a mess for the most part. The floor was covered in clothes and other things that he never bothered to pick up. It drove Aerith up a wall constantly (no one would forget April 23rd.) but, no matter the prodding he received, Axel never really fixed a thing. In fact, it constantly got worst. Beside the clothes on the floor, the red walls were also covered with scorch marks from whenever Axel practiced with his "pyrotechnics."

"Why would they do that! That doesn't make any sense…" Roxas was mulling over things in his mind. What Axel said he heard didn't match the Sens' goals at all.

Then again, they could be rather unpredictable at times, which was one of the reasons for getting rid of them.

"Axel, we have to tell everyone else, sooner rather than later."

Axel spun a pen around on his black desk with a smile on his face. "Relax Rox, even I'm not stupid enough to go in on this alone."

Roxas nodded quickly, but his worry over the situation didn't disperse. Even if Axel didn't try to stop it alone, the plan itself would be a disaster for the Resistance.

Then again, maybe that's why it was formed in the first place…

Just then, a knock was heard on their door. Axel looked over to the door and yelled.

"It's open!"

There, Yuffie skipped through the doors with a bright smile on her face. It was one thing that some liked about Yuffie and others didn't. Her upbeat personality despite what was going on in the town.

I dare you to guess who hated it.

"Hey! Riku wants ta meet with all of us stat!"

Axel stood up from his desk and headed for the doorway as Roxas jumped up quickly and followed behind him. He almost started running, until he noticed his pockets lacked their usual jingling. With a frown and a scornful look, he turned to Yuffie.

"Yuffie," He said with a serious tone.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"Give me back my money." He stated while reaching out his hand.

Yuffie, with a frown, Yuffie slouched over and dropped several small golden orbs into his hand. She then disappeared into a puff of smoke before anything could be said between them. With a smug smile on his face, he slipped the small orbs back into his pocket and took of down the hallway towards the meeting room.

Naminé sat in the corner and sketched in the notebook, keeping her mind empty and letting her pencils do the talking. It was something she did often, just in case a memory of someone important came her way. It was pretty much for this reason that she was part of the Intel base.

And besides her, there was Zexion.

When it came to mastering time, Zexion knew how to do it. He always somehow had the information he needed, but he still had plenty of time to read a book. If you looked in his room, the only thing visible would be books, except for his bed.

The other members of Intel hardly spent any time at base at all, since the acted as Zexion's eyes and ears.

Yes, Zexion had a network.

Naminé never talked to him much, since she was often afraid of being rude and interrupting him, so she stayed to herself mostly.

When she had finished her picture, she was looking at two blond figures standing side by side, holding hands. She gave a cheerful smile and pulled the page out of her notebook.

"I hope he visits soon…" She whispered.

"Waiting for it to happen won't make it happen any sooner…" Zexion spoke from the background.

Naminé jumped in surprise and turned to see Zexion, but he had already gone back to the book.

Why was he so mysterious?

The sun had set on Lumina City and, when the sun set, Resistance came to life. And like most missions, they began in the meeting room.

"Alright, let's get started." Riku announced.

Again, he pressed a small button on the table and everyone watched as the screen with a familiar logo came down from the roof.

"Alright, tonight is the beginning of Operation: Shadow Killer."

Riku looked around to everyone and, once he was satisfied that everyone was quiet he began the briefing.

"Now, based on the Intel we received from various sources…" Riku glared at Axel for a second. "… The Sens are planning on using the Heartless on the town to flush us out. So, we're gonna give 'em what they want."

Many confused faces could be seen around the table. It was a rather curious plan, but Riku seemed to know what he was doing.

"For this plan, we're going to split into pairs. Axel and Roxas will be together…" The two high-fived quickly and sat back in their seats. "… Kairi with Yuffie, Sora with me and Aerith…"

"Will be with me."

Like a whip, everyone's head swung to the doorway. There, clad in a long red tunic and wearing a pair of sunglasses stood the ex-owner of Military Antiques, the first store to be shut down by the Senators.

It was none other than the great Auron.

"Oh, Master Auron!" Aerith stammered in shock.

"I was told by Zexion to meet you here." He said, showing little emotion. He pulled a large blade out of a sheath on his back and placed it on his shoulder, where it looked a lot better.

"Zexion told me about a new member. It looks like we got lucky."

"Why would you say that?" Kairi asked.

A smirk came across Riku's face. "Can't have idiots in the Resistance can we?"

Even Yuffie could agree with that, and she showed it with a gleeful nod. Riku smiled a little more, until he looked over to a map that had appeared on screen.

"Now, back to the plan…"

It was cloudy that night. For once, there were no stars visible in the sky. It was perfect conditions for a little mission.

The jobs were as such. It was up to Axel, Roxas, Riku and Sora to assault the main factory while the others tried to cause as much ruckus as possible in a central area.

The area was oh so conveniently located in the parking lot by the Intel tower, despite Naminé`s pleas.

"So, what exactly are we waiting for?" Sora asked his main partner.

"Simple." He replied in a quiet voice. "When we see the gates of the factory open, that's our time to strike."

Sora nodded and looked down to the streets below. They used to look so beautiful.

Damn Sens.

"Sora, are you alright about all this?"

"About what?" Sora asked, confusion building up.

"With this whole Resistance thing. I mean, I know you don't like being a leader…"

Sora nodded absently, but his attention was quickly taken by something else.

"Sometimes, I think I'm making bad decisions, but everyone is depending on me,"

"Uhh… Riku?" Sora said, jabbing Riku in the shoulder.

An annoyed groan came from Riku as he finally gave Sora some attention. "Just let me finish!"

"No, let me finish," Sora said, taking charge. "In case you haven't noticed, a large stream of deadly black monsters just streamed out of the factory and dashed towards Intel."

"Wait, what!" Riku looked down towards the alleyways and, sure enough, the Heartless had been released.

After a quick facepalm, Riku pulled out a handheld device, turning a small dial.

"_This is Soul Eater. The Heartless have been released. Eternal Flame and Two Become One, head in. We'll be right behind you."_

Sora quickly pat Riku on the back and lifted his arm to the sky. The Keyblade was quick to appear as he catapulted off the building. Riku, not wanting to be left behind, he let a sphere of dark energy build in his hand until a dark sword shaped like a bat-wing solidified. Then, he pushed off the building and landed right beside Sora. It was rather surprising how fast the Heartless had cleared out.

Someone was busy on the other front.

"_This is The Flame!" _The walkie-talkie system echoed. "_We made it to the back door and took out the Guardians that were there. We head in on your mark. Got it memorized?"_

Riku looked to Sora, who returned the look with a huge smile. Then without another word, they took off to the door.

"_Soul Eater to Eternal Flame, head on in and search for a Power Source."_ Riku replied.

With a final glance up to the giant grey and black factory, the two friends headed into the biological factory fully prepared for what was in store. That is, they would've been if they knew what was in store.

"So, Yuffie…" Kairi said quietly, trying to set up a conversation. Throughout all of her years of living in the city of Lumina, Kairi hadn't ever talked to Yuffie one to one.

"Uh-huh?" She asked, stopping her vendetta against the mailbox to hear Kairi.

What? Their job was to cause havoc! Well, that was Yuffie's train of thought anyways.

"Well, I was sort of wondering why we didn't really know-"

"Incoming!" Aerith yelled across the devastated parking lot. The small lights from the Intel tower quickly shut off as another series of small lights starting coming down the street.

The glowing eyes of an ocean of Heartless.

Aerith was quick to draw her spear and spin it around in front of her body. Auron was fully prepared to slay something, although his face really didn't say anything otherwise.

Kairi lifted her hand into the air and let several flower petals float around into her hand and for into another Keyblade. Though she was rather inexperienced with a weapon, she was ready to do her part. Unfortunately, before anyone had a chance to move, they were already surrounded by a ring of shadowy creatures.

Six Shadows jumped from outside the circle and attempted to land onto Auron, but he was quick to spin around and slice three in half quickly. Aerith speared through the other three before they could land on his back.

Yuffie threw her giant shuriken towards another Shadow and cut it in half. She then ran forwards and grabbed the star, spinning around to try and kick another one. But, she just hit air as it faded into the ground.

Kairi held her Keyblade above her head as she ran towards Yuffie. It did its job as it protected Yuffie from an upward strike.

"Thanks," Yuffie smiled.

Kairi replied with a bright smile of her own. Her face returned to its serious look as she stood back-to-back with the energetic ninja.

Aerith and Auron were in the same position on the other side. The Heartless had backed off for some reason. Then, the insect-like creatures began to fade into dark spheres.

"This doesn't look good." Auron said quietly.

Aerith looked around quickly and spun the spear above her head. "It looks like they're changing or something."

Auron placed his hand to his ear to turn on his communication device.

"_This is Masamune. The Heartless look to be changing. Has something happened at the factory?"_

The reply came quickly. _"We haven't done anything yet. All that's happened is we've taken out a few guards. Keep us updated."_

Auron grumbled, but there wasn't really anything he could do about it.

"Master Auron…" Aerith whispered to the gruff man.

He looked back to the Heartless to see that they had become much more physical. They now seemed to have gained sharp claws and feet with shiny metallic helmets. There also seemed to be smaller ones floating in the air.

Aerith jumped high and knocked one of the hovering Heartless into the ground, but she was hit with a ball of fire from one of the other floating dome-shaped Heartless. Auron dashed forward and took it out with a swing of his long blade, along with a few of the soldier-like Heartless. Then, Yuffie used his shoulders as leverage to jump into the air and throw her large shuriken into the Heartless and caught Aerith with her free hands.

She landed on the ground safely and placed Aerith down before jumping back into the air and throwing it into a group of Heartless.

Kairi was already exhausted as she batted Heartless away left and right. They were slowly reaching in closer to her. Before they knew it, all four of the fighters were back to back knocking Heartless away before they could get any closer.

"This… Isn't good…" Kairi huffed. Things definitely weren't turning out in their favour.

"Yeah, this is definitely not a good thing," Yuffie said, yet she still didn't seem to have run out of energy.

As they got down to their last legs, the Heartless were ready to overwhelm them. Even Auron was beginning to have difficulties at fighting them off.

It was then that a large blast came from the centre of the crowd of Heartless , effectively wiping out half of them. The other Heartless began to look around, but they looked rather disoriented. Then, they all started to teleport away or run around in circles.

The Heartless were panicking.

The small group used the last of their energy to finish off the remaining Heartless before they met together again.

A loud voice came from the top of the Intel tower.

"Hey! It actually worked!" A cheerful voiced yelled across the parking lot.

The small group, all gasping for breath; they looked up. There, they saw a teenaged girl with blond hair jump from the top of the Intel tower and land on her feet perfectly.

"Hiya! Hope I wasn't too late!" The girl said with a cheerful smile. It was impossible to see her eyes through her large goggles.

"Wait… Who're you?" Kairi asked. She was incredibly grateful for the assistance, but at the same time, she still had no idea who the person was.

"Oh, sorry!" The girl replied, waving her hands all over the place. Then, she lifted her goggles to reveal her bright green eyes.

"Hi! I'm Rikku! A guy named Cloud sent me here to help out. Did I do my job?"

The man in a black mask landed on top of the Heartless factory. He walked towards the door without as much as a whisper. He brushed the brown hair out of his face as he tried to open the door into the building.

Unfortunately for him, the door was lock.

Then, a light shot out from his dark cloak and opened the door quickly, leaving no mark. He pushed the door open silently and slinked through without anyone noticing. He wasn't 100% sure, but his gut told him Orichalcum would be in that factory.

He slipped down the stairs as fast and silently as possible, being careful to avoid notice. Soon enough, he would get to the Orichalcum. It was absolutely necessary to free his friends.

As well as himself.

**Author's Note:**

**Thank you loyal readers for staying with me! I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I like writing it!**

**I should let you know I will be starting to have a regular update schedule from now on. You should expect a new chapter every Monday. If not, it should be around then.**

**Two new characters introduced here! And it is only the beginning…**

**See you around!**

**-FrozenXIII's Fire**


	4. Enter Insanity

Riku slashed through the Guardian with Soul Eater like a knife through butter, never slowing down for anything. Sora was right beside him and gave a huge thumbs up when he looked over to him. He smashed his Kingdom Key into a large guard who didn't even see it coming. Though they didn't ever say a word to each other, the same thought was going through their heads.

"_Damn, the security to this place sucks…"_

It was just as he thought that when a message came through his communicator.

"_This is Masamune. The Heartless look to be changing. Has something happened at the factory?"_

Riku groaned. Of course, if things got easy on one end of the mission, they would get a whole lot worse on the other side.

"_We haven't done anything yet. All that's happened is we've taken out a few guards. Keep us updated."_ Riku was quick to reply to the message. He swung at another Guardian who had jumped out of a nearby hallway and kept running. Hopefully they could find the centre of the factory sooner rather than later.

While Riku was worrying about the outcome of the mission, Sora was having a blast taking out Guardians. It was fun, but it was easy as well. Secretly, he wished that they could have some Heartless to fight. They would probably be a bit more of a challenge.

For those wondering; yes, Sora had totally forgotten his defeat at the hands of one of the same Guardians that he seemed to think were easy.

They ran a few more minutes, weaving through the empty alleyways of the Heartless Factory. Riku was starting to get annoyed at the lack of results when a door marked with the Logo of the Heartless caught his eye.

"Sora, wait up," Riku ordered. The boy in question slid to a halt as Riku began to examine the heavy steel door. "That blade of yours can open any door, right?"

Sora lifted an eyebrow. "Yeah?" He questioned.

"Open this door," RIku asked.

Sora gave a shrug, but he complied quickly as he held his blade up to the door and closed his eyes. Below his feet, a crown shape appeared as a bright light shot out of the tip of his Keyblade.

The two doors slid into the walls and revealed a dark room with conveyor belts and large machines bearing the same logo as the door.

_Bingo. _Riku thought.

"Wow…" Sora gaped. Without any other thoughts, the two walked into the "assembly" line and started looking around for a power generator.

"I told them that things would get bad if they let _all _the Heartless leave…" A loud and cackling voice echoed across the large room.

The teens took a few tentative steps backwards looking in all directions in a battle stance. Riku planned to dash out the door as soon as possible. But, as he tried to flee, he slammed into a barrier of completely transparent hexagonal panels that clearly weren't there a few seconds ago.

" No no no no no…" The voice cackled some more. "Can't have two little troublemakers running around causing whatever ruckus they felt like, can we? If I was in charge, you'd all be at the bottom of the sandy sea by now…."

The boys looked to each other with confused faces. What was it talking about?

Riku regained his composure and looked out to the centre of the factory. "Show Yourself!"

"I'll show myself to whatever the heck I feel like!" It snapped. Then, while spinning around, a man in long yellow robes and clown make-up descended from the ceiling and landed on top of what looked like a gas tank.

"Ooh look!" The man said with a maniacal smile. "If it isn't a pair of POSERS!" He laughed.

Sora bent his knees a little and prepared to push of the ground while Riku lifted his blade to a comfortable position.

"Senator Kefka," He growled. "Also known as the Nutty Senator."

The smile did not fade as two spheres of fire started to float in his hands.

"Let's do a little dance, shall we?" He sneered.

Imagine that you're a bird flying in the sky over the Heartless Factory. Then, imagine that the factory has no roof and you can see all the individual rooms.

If you can't imagine that, I pity you greatly.

Anyways, the reason I'm telling you to do this is so you can see what it looks like and how inefficient it is. Basically, the factory is built so that a thick cement wall without doors cut right through the centre of the factory.

Why was it made this way? The answer is quite simple, really.

They put an idiot in charge of construction.

It was because of this that Axel and Roxas would not be able to meet up with the other assault crew.

Roxas slashed at another guard, constantly getting more annoyed at the lack of progress they were making. He jumped over the next one and stabbed him in the back.

"Why is this TAKING SO LONG!" Axel growled loudly as his Eternal Flames ripped through another Guardian. Actual flames were beginning to expand around the magical weapons as his anger rose.

Axel was a cool guy most of the time, but when he got mad…

He got really mad.

Roxas jumped back to Axel's side as he began to pant a little from the exertion he was putting himself through. His black cloak was somewhat tattered by the blades and other weapons that had come at him. Axel was in pretty much the same condition. They had managed to drive away the guards anyhow.

"If we can't find the actual production plant, there has to be a power source or something…"

Axel just snarled and put his hand to his ear.

"_This is Eternal Flame,"_ He said, trying his best to hide his anger. _"It's been like hours since we've been here and we still haven't found anything! Does ANYONE have anything we can go on!"_

Roxas fully expected to hear a radio message from their leader echo into his little device, so he was surprised when the voice of Zexion came through the speaker.

"_This is the Book of Retribution," _said the quiet voice. _"Unfortunately, a strange force has caused us to lose connection with our faithful leader."_

"Wait, what!" Axel and Roxas said in unison.

"_It is quite shocking, isn't it? But that isn't the point… Anyways, can you please tell me which side you entered the factory?"_

The two boys looked at each other, rather suspicious of Zexion's ability to totally ignore the fact their leader was AWOL, but they didn't really have a choice in the matter, so he was the only one they could possibly ask.

"_Uh… East side…"_ Axel stammered.

A dark chuckle came through the devices. Zexion obviously thought something was hiliarious.

"_Hmhmhm… Oh, I apologize… It should be notice that from the East side, it is rather impossible to get to the factory."_

Axel practically punched a hole through a wall as soon as he said it.

"_However, there are some other things that could prove useful…"_

Roxas looked up to Axel, who was yelling in agony at the pain in his hand before he replied to Zexion.

"_Alright, what do you have planned then?"_

"_Though the factory is located on the other side of the building, the power source is on your side. You should go looking for a suspicious hidden door…"_ Zexion explained.

Roxas hesitated for a second, but he knew that it was exactly what he had to do.

"_Alright, Book of Retribution, we'll keep in touch." _He then hung up his device and looked over to the now recovered Axel.

"We better get going…" Roxas stammered, desperately trying to hide his laughter.

Axel just flicked him on the forehead and headed down the hallway.

"C'mon..." He growled.

"Wait, did you say Cloud!" Aerith said in shock. She had to push Yuffie and Kairi out of the way just to get to the cheerful blonde.

"Uh-huh!" She said with a smile.

"He did come and get us after all…" A deeper voice came from the shadow of the tower. Walking out from there was a grey haired girl wearing leather and lots of black.

"Oh, there you are Paine!" Rikku cheered.

"Hmph," She grunted.

"Hey, where's Yunie and Cloud?" Rikku asked her partner, running up right to her face. Paine just rolled her eyes and whispered into her ear.

A face of realization appeared from Rikku as the plan was remembered. The whole time, the rest of the resistance was just staring at them in awe.

"What the heck's goin' on?" Yuffie asked.

"I have no idea…" Kairi replied. She was about to look over to hear Aerith's opinion, but she already seemed to be wrapped in her own thoughts. Auron just adjusted his glasses and looked back over to the leading streets, still prepared for a possible enemy ambush.

"Anyways…" Rikku continued, dragging out the word to bring the attention back to herself. "This is Paine! She's one of the Gullwings, just like me!"

"Hey…" She said while looking at her nails.

An awkward silence went through the area.

"So…" Yuffie spoke up. "We've finished up over here. Now what?"

More awkward silence.

"Well, I guess we just wait here then," Kairi replied.

"Or we could go help out," A strong, masculine voice called across the area.

Again, everyone's attention moved to one point. All except for Paine and Rikku who already knew what was coming.

A familiar blond head could be seen bobbing up the street.

Sora dodged another fire ball and ran at Kefka once again. He jumped to take a swing at him, but he was quick to dance out of the way and send another wave of fire at him. Sora was hit across the chest and knocked into a nearby wall.

He grunted in pain as Riku ran up the wall and shot off with dark energy forming in his hand. He released the energy at Kefka while spinning in a circle with Soul Eater at the ready.

Kefka was cackling wildly as the dark fire exploded in his face. He was knocked off guard and took another strike to the face from Soul Eater. Kefka still didn't react that much.

Riku landed on the ground while panting heavily as Kefka floated slowly to the tip of a gas tank. Sora ran up beside Riku with a large scorch mark across his clothes and with little energy left.

"We didn't have to try… To take this place out…" Sora panted. "Kefka's been doing most of the work for us."

Sure enough, Sora had made a very viable point. Upon looking around the Factory, there were scorch marks and damage all over the place that were mostly destroyed by Kefka.

"Well well, are the little toys tired now?" Kefka chuckled maniacally. "Cause if you are, I can end this right now."

Sora furthered his grasp on his Keyblade as Kefka lifted his hand to the sky. A sphere of dark energy along with a ring of white formed around the hand.

"Then it might be time to face my Heartless ANGEL!"

The boys closed their eyes and braced themselves for the worst. They wait several seconds. Yet, the powerful attack they were expecting never came. Instead, there was just the sound of a loud smack and silence.

Riku was the first to open his eyes.

What he saw was an unconscious Kefka lying on top of the large tank with a man standing on top of him. The man was cloaked in black with his face hidden from view.

Sora pushed himself off of the ground and looked up to the man, much like Riku.

"Hmph," He grunted. Then, before anything else could happen, the man jumped off of the building and landed behind the boys and pushed the door open. He pushed up a dark wall between him in the boys.

"No one will get in my way…" He mumbled.

Before Riku could even say anything, the man had gone, trapping Sora and Riku in a factory between a dark wall and a scorched room.

"Well… This sucks." Sora mumbled.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry I'm late with this one (lots of stuff going on(including lack of inspiration…)) but at least it's here in its pretty bad limelight. Yeah… This isn't my best chapter. Thanks to all who are supporting this and I'm sure that many are happy to see our ex-SOLDIER show his face.**

**Ah well. I'll try to get the next one out by Monday. Thanks Readers!**

**-FrozenXIII'sFire**


	5. Gunnin' 'em Down

Aerith did something that was rather unexpected when she saw the blond mercenary return to the ruined City of Lumina.

She didn't show any sort of shock or surprise. Her only reaction was to walk right up to him, slap him across the face and began scolding him for leaving the city unannounced.

"You're supposed to tell people when you leave! You can't just get up without notice and…"

Yeah, the lecture went on for several minutes, but the whole "OMG Cloud's back" thing wore off as soon as she started yelling at him. They had moved on to the plan of helping out the others.

"They obviously need it if they aren't back yet." Kairi explained.

"Yeah… The guys get things done a lot faster than this normally…" Yuffie whispered to Kairi and Rikku. They had huddled up in the parking lot. Well, all except for Cloud, Aerith, Auron and Paine who were all doing something else.

"Ooh! Sounds like fun!" Rikku interjected. "But… I think we should wait for Yunie first."

"Oh, right. There's a third Gullwing, right?" Kairi asked.

Rikku smiled. "Uh-huh. Yuna, the leader of our ragtag group of treasure hunters."

Kairi nodded a little and then took a look around the parking lot. She was rather surprised to see that Paine had come up to the circle.

"You obviously weren't paying attention when I said she was going on ahead." She snapped at Rikku.

Rikku looked confused at first, but her face finally lit up in realization. "Oh, Right!" She gasped.

"More Heartless coming," Auron said loudly. Everyone's attention, including Aerith and the now lectured Cloud; they all looked back to the same street.

Another swarm of shadowy creatures were coming at them. They seemed relatively the same as they had last time, yet there was one that was somewhat different from the rest of them.

Kairi brought out her Keyblade again and stood in a stance directly beside Yuffie with her Star spinning around her hand. Aerith had brought out her spear again and Rikku and Paine got into a fighting stance since neither of them held weapons.

"That was my last grenade too…" Rikku mumbled.

Paine gave a shrug and looked back to the oncoming wave. Yet, this group seemed different. It seemed much more organized. They almost looked like an army. Then, it suddenly made sense. There was a different Heartless leading the group.

The Heartless had a strange bladed helmet upon its head and its body had a sort of reddish hue. Its hands were large blades surrounded by some strange barrels. It had rather large feet as well and a strange mane of brown going down its back.

"Hmph…" Auron grunted, pulling his sword off of his shoulder.

"Get ready Cloud!" Aerith yelled.

"I'm right beside you…" Cloud snarled.

Soon, the next wave was upon them. More Shadows came at them, but with extra numbers, the wave was easier to deal with.

Cloud, with his large blade swinging; he ran through the crowds, slicing at anything he came by. Another Soldier Heartless jumped out of the wave at him, but he cut through it without any effort. Then, a red dome-like Heartless in crimson blasted out of the crowd and started raining crimson bombs on the field.

Yuffie jumped out of the wave and threw her Shuriken through a bunch of the bombs as they exploded in the air. Then, Kairi jumped into the air as well and shot a Blizzard at the dome-shaped heartless beside her.

Rikku and Paine were having a blast as the beat up the Heartless on the ground. Rikku slammed her fist into a Shadow and flipped back over Paine so she could axe-kick the next Heartless. Paine was almost strong enough to take out what was left by herself. A few punches here and there could be enough to take them out.

After a few minutes, the wave of Heartless began to dissipate, leaving less to deal with until, finally, the strange boss Heartless jumped out of the fray and landed in the middle of the parking lot, surrounded by the resistance members.

"Get ready." Auron called. Everyone got into a fighting stance around the beast and waited for the first move.

It was unfortunate that the first move was a wave of fire from the barrels on its hands.

Sora continued to bang on the black wall blocking the door. He hit it over and over with his Keyblade, yet it wouldn't budge. The Keyblade wouldn't even unlock it for them.

Riku, on the other hand was busy finishing with Kefka by throwing him into one of the worker lockers and tying a rope he had found around. It was really the best he could do since he had nothing to suppress magic.

He let out a loud sigh and sat down, leaning next to the locker. His attempts to call people with his communication device had failed. The room had literally no reception.

"DAMN IT!" Sora snapped, finally just kicking the door and falling onto his butt.

Riku chuckled a little. Despite the seriousness of the situation, it was still pretty hilarious witnessing someone fall over.

"Are we still trapped here?" Riku yelled across the factory floor.

"Yeah…" Sora gasped, lacking breath.

Riku sighed again and pulled a small black and red device from his pocket. It had an LED timer on it that kept flashing 30:00 over and over again. It was the bomb they were supposed to use to blow up the factory. Despite being in the destination, it was a pretty bad idea to blow the place skyward.

You know, since they were still inside it?

"Now what are we supposed to do…" Sora sighed. He had stood up by now and was leaning against one of the gas tanks with his hands behind his head. The smell of machinery and oil was beginning to bother him, but he refused to show it.

"I don't know." Riku replied quietly. He was wrought with guilt at getting into the situation.

Sora, sensing the feeling of failure in his friend, he quickly changed the subject. "I wonder what that guy wanted anyways. He didn't seem like a Guardian."

"You're right…" Riku contemplated, silently thanking Sora for the change of pace. "He seemed to have something else in mind. He must really want it if he decided to trap us in this room."

"But what could he want? Why is he trying so hard to get it?"

"I guess we'll just have to figure that out."

"After we get out of this room, anyways…" Sora said shyly.

Riku chuckled a little more. "Right… Any plans, Keybearer?"

Sora moved his hand to his chin and sat back down, getting into a thinking position, whatever that means.

He looked around the scorched and ruined factory for anything that could be of any use. There wasn't much that could help them, since the dark and ominous barrier blocking the door seemed to be immune to everything. It was then that Sora's gaze moved upward and he saw a mesh catwalk going across the factory at the top, roughly 300 metres off of the ground.

"That's it!" Sora exclaimed as he jumped to his feet.

Riku was rather surprised that Sora had an idea. To him, the chances of escaping the factory had appeared hopeless.

"All we have to do is get up to that platform." Sora explained while pointing at the catwalk.

Riku looked up and, sure enough, the platform could be seen from where Sora was standing. There it was, their way out; their one line of escape.

"Now, all we need to do is find a way up there," Sora said.

Riku groaned and flopped back onto the ground.

"_Great, another problem to figure out…"_ Riku thought to himself.

Axel threw his chakram as another Guardian jumped out of the hallway. It cut through his head and he ran to grab it and kept going. Roxas was right behind him as he cut through a Guardian with one Keyblade and did a flip over the next one. They came to a fork in the hallway and looked around.

"Alright, Book, where to next..." Roxas whispered into his communicator.

"_From where you are, you should take the left hallway and then the door on the right. That should bring you directly to the door of the Power Room."_

They were quick to follow orders from their shadowy friend. They didn't even spend a second waiting for a fighter to show up and cause any more difficulties. They quickly turned left and bolted down the hall. The door was easy to find, especially since it was marked with the strange logo that was found on all of the Heartless.

Roxas gave a sideways glance to Axel, who was quick to nod as he threw one of his chakrams over his shoulder. Roxas nodded in reply and placed his hand on the door. What was strange was the fact that it just pushed right open, without a need to unlock it or put in some code.

The reason was soon revealed when they saw a dark, cloaked figure standing in front of a glowing tube with a small, star-like crystal floating inside. The man turned around quickly as a blur of black appeared in his hand and revealed a rather rustic looking blade in a familiar shape.

"A Keyblade…" Said Axel and Roxas in unison.

The group scatter quickly at the first blast. They were lucky too, as the shot had caused a huge explosion, leaving a crater behind.

Cloud, who had rolled into a nearby alley; he jumped out again and was the first to attempt a strike. He leaped into the air above the bladed Heartless and dropped from above to do some damage. The Heartless was a lot faster than it looked, as it had already moved out of the way. Before he even had a chance to guard, he was struck across the chest and knocked into a wall.

Flames suddenly started to burst from its feet and it shot itself into the wall Cloud was knocked into. Cloud was still recovering from the first strike and had no time to prepare.

Thankfully, Auron cut through the side of the beast while knocking it out of the way. Auron jumped back and landed beside Cloud, helping him back on his feet.

"Pay more attention next time." Auron said quietly.

"Hmph." Cloud grunted in reply, bracing his sword strongly.

Their eyes darted to the Heartless as it jumped out of the pile of rubble and prepared for another strike. Instead of unleashing a large explosion like before, it unleashed a flurry of fireballs from its barrels at the two swordsmen. They raised their blades to guard against the spheres, but they started to get pushed back. The fireballs kept pushing them further and further backwards. Even Auron was having trouble keeping his ground against the wave of fire.

It was now that Kairi decided she was tired of standing back so, after staring across the lot to Aerith, who agreed with her plan. There was a very small delay in blasts, and that's when they jumped in.

"Reflect!" They yelled in unison. As the creature released another large blast, they jumped in front of the blast as a barrier formed around each of them. They lifted their weapons up and winced as the large sphere of fire slammed against the wall.

"Get 'em now!" The girls yelled, desperately trying to hold the fire ball in place. Auron and Cloud nodded and ran out from behind the barrier. Auron's blade started to glow red as a white light formed around Cloud's Buster Sword.

The bolted at him from both directions and prepared to strike. In the blink of an eye, Auron had dived beneath the GunBlade Heartless and knocked him into the air. Cloud vaulted off of the ground and knocked him back down. Auron then slammed his sword into the ground and a swarm of spirits shot out of the ground and knocked him back into the air where Cloud trapped him in a flurry of slashes. Then, with one final move, Auron jumped into the air as Cloud slammed down on it, catching him in a scissor move.

They landed on their knees on opposite sides of the Heartless and it fell to the ground, exploding into smog of dark smoke. Black vapour exploded from the creature as a strange dark icon floated into the sky.

It was then that the other members of the group ran out of the alleys and circled the mass that used to be a powerful Heartless. Cloud and Auron pushed off of the ground and joined the others, gasping for breath.

"Glad that's over with," Cloud gasped. Rikku was quick to nod at his statement.

On the other side of the lot, Yuffie and Paine were helping Kairi and Aerith off of the ground. Some small words of gratitude where exchanged as the grouped up with everyone else. They were all a little worried that the beast hadn't disappeared like all of the rest of them. The one thing was that it started to look almost… Human.

"What's with this thing?" Yuffie asked.

"No idea." Paine grumbled.

"Hmph," Auron agreed.

It was then that Aerith suddenly had an idea.

"Here, let me try something." She said.

They had no other plan, so the group was quick to back away. Aerith lifted her spear to the air and closed her eyes.

"Cure…" She said quietly with her eyes closed. A white light surrounded the darkish mass on the ground and the remaining darkness dissipated from the place.

There, what remained were an unconscious man and a silver blade with a gun for a handle.

"Wow… Didn't see that coming…" Rikku whispered.

Kairi dropped down beside him and tried to wake him up.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" She asked softly.

The man tried to push off of the ground, but he stumbled back to the ground quickly. He managed to let out one phrase before completely passing out.

"Anti…Power…"

**Author's Note:**

**Hello again! I know I haven't been as consistent recently, but there's been a lot going on. Also, my inspiration came back, which helps a lot.**

**Now might be the time to let you know not to expect anything from me in November due to NaNoWriMo and such. Still, I appreciate all of the Readers and I hope that I can still keep pumping out chapters.**

**Thanks!**

**-FrozenXIII'sFire**


	6. Orichalcum and the Scientist

One of the best things about a factory was that there was never a lack of any sort of equipment that might be needed from the men on the work floor.

So, in Sora and Riku's case, ropes were rather easy to come by. By going to one of the other work closets (as in, the one that didn't have Kefka locked inside) they found another long rope that could be used to get up to the catwalk above.

Unfortunately, throwing a rope was a lot more difficult than they made it look in the movies.

Riku decided it was his turn to shine. So, he tied a large loop to make a lasso and started to spin it above his head. He swung it faster and faster, making Sora jump out of the way to avoid collision with the rope. Then, with a loud grunt, he threw it towards the catwalk.

It didn't even make it halfway.

Riku attempted several more times before he tired out his arm and collapsed to the ground.

"Well, that's not going to work," Riku panted.

Sora chuckled a little. "What's wrong, Riku? Not strong enough?" He said.

Riku smirked. "Still stronger than you…" He challenged.

They both laughed a little, but it quickly died down. They were still trapped in a warehouse, after all.

They sat around for a few minutes, thinking quietly in the dim light of the empty factory. It was just then that another idea occurred to Sora.

"Hey… Why don't we tie a Keyblade to it?"

At first, Riku thought of the idea as ridiculous, but then his thoughts turned to what a grappling hook looked like in all of the movies. Maybe tying more weight to it could give it more momentum!

"It's worth a shot," Riku shrugged.

Sora held out his hand and let the bright light form his blade once more. He dashed towards the rope and picked it up. After tying a secure knot, he brought his Kingdom Key back and prepared for one of his signature attacks. This attack was known as the Strike Raid.

The Keyblade soared through the room, latching around the overhang and spinning to a halt. Sora gave a grunt of approval while Riku just rolled his eyes.

"Show off," He mumbled.

Sora showed a sly smile. "Hey, it worked, didn't it? Let's get climbing,"

Sora grabbed onto the rope and began his climb quickly. It took a few minutes, being a rope without any holds or steps to get onto. Riku was right behind him the whole time. He knew that, though Sora was far more acrobatic, Riku possessed the better strength, therefore, if Sora were to lose his footing, Riku could be right there to grab him.

Of course, he couldn't guarantee that he could grab him and continue to hold onto the rope.

It was a lot like something that had happened when they were younger. They had the brilliant idea to climb up the Intel tower just to see if they could make it to the top. It was obvious now that that wouldn't have even been possible.

In the end, they had ended up with broken legs and been stuck inside for quite a few weeks.

This time, they were stronger and older. Also, they knew that it was important to escape so they could help out the others. In the end, they made it up to the rafters successfully without any issues or problems. Sora grabbed his Keyblade from the metal bar and looked back to the factory floor.

"Let's try not falling down," Riku suggested somewhat jokingly.

"Yeah," Sora agreed.

He looked over to the wall and was happy to see that there was an unblocked door sitting there perfectly untouched.

"Let's get going," Sora stated already beginning to dart off to the door. "I don't want to be around when Kefka breaks out of that cabinet."

Riku gave a nod, giving a quick glance back to the cabinet in question. He hadn't noticed before, but he saw that the cabinet was shaking mildly. Obviously Kefka wasn't happy with his new situation. So, instead of sticking around, they didn't hesitate to skedaddle out of the doorway and away from the factory room.

They came out of the factory room and were happy to see that there were no Guardians on their floor. It was definitely a sigh of relief. Sora glanced over to his friend, but he was already contacting the others. It seemed that the factory was the only place in the entire facility without phone reception.

Sora looked over the railing, only to see that the bottom floor was empty. The place had become a ghost town in the time they spent trapped in a cement work room.

He sighed. It looked like their mission wasn't turning out as he thought it would. He thought quickly to the other group that had invaded the factory with them: His cousin, along with Axel.

He hoped desperately that everything was alright on their end.

Roxas summoned his blades and stepped back, taking a defensive stance. He could tell just by the look of his Keyblade and the stance he had taken that this man was strong and very dangerous. Axel sighed as he dropped his Eternal Flames to his sides and spun them around lazily.

"Look. I'm pretty sure that we can all make this work, right?" Axel said.

The hooded figure said nothing, merely staying in his stance with his large Keyblade resting partially on the ground. He made no sound. Instead, he simply stood still.

Roxas still didn't quite trust him. For all they knew, he could be some new Senator with a replica Keyblade, simply toying with them.

"Alright, I see you don't want to talk. All we want is to blow this factory to smithereens, got it memorized? Just get what you want and get the hell out of here." Axel negotiated.

"Actually, I'm afraid that the outcome of this situation will not be quite what any of you expected."

The three turned to face the door. There, there was a man with platinum blond hair and creepy, inquisitive green eyes.

Roxas and Axel both knew exactly who that was. It was Senator Vexen, The Chilly Academic. He was the main scientist of all the Senators and frequented the factory the most out of all of them.

To be honest, it was a little foolish to assume they could get away without running into him. Axel snarled, spinning his chakrams around his hands. Roxas looked back to the shadowy figure before turning back to the scientist.

"Grab what you need and get the heck out of there!" Roxas yelled.

The man in the dark cloak was a little stunned. He was fully prepared to take them out a second before, but, there was something about the blond boy. He reminded him so much of his own friend who was still trapped back in his own land.

So, he placed his hand on the glass and let his dark energy swirl into the glass container. It swarmed around the bright crystal, clenching it in a dark fist. The hand then pulled the crystal out of the glass and let it float in his hand.

The Orichalcum was officially his.

Roxas ran forward, bringing his black keyblade around to slam into his head. Sadly, the scientist came prepared. Icy crystals formed by his arm, creating a sleek blue shield. With a large "CLINK," the Keyblade bounced off and the recoil took Roxas with it.

"Now, I'm afraid that I cannot let you take that crystal. It is very valuable to my research." He sighed. With a snap of his fingers, ice crystals formed around the glass and shattered it, breaking the dark connection and making the Orichalcum return to Vexen's hand.

There was an angry grunt from the shady figure as he pulled back his hand. He pointed his Keyblade straight at Vexen. Axel spun his chakrams around and lit them on fire. Then, with one great throw, he launched them at Vexen. In response, Vexen lifted his shield and deflected the strike, knocking the chakrams in another direction.

"Oh please, you honestly believe your petty attacks can even leave a dent?"

Axel growled loudly. The man was truly impenetrable as long as he kept his icy shield at his side. Roxas, in a fog of adrenaline and rage, he dashed at the scientist again, swinging his blades over and over at the blue blocker, not leaving a scratch. Axel admired his enthusiasm, but it was a hopeless endeavor.

The platinum-haired scientist rolled his eyes as he kept his shield up to block the strike. "I've just about had enough of this…" He sighed.

"Then I'll just end it…" The dark figure whispered. His voice was deep and threatening. There was a flash of darkness around his figure as he vanished. Then, with a rush of movement, the man shot out of the shadows from behind Vexen and swung his Keyblade at the man's head. He didn't see it coming. Vexen took the full brunt of the force and went flying into a nearby wall. With the force of the strike, he quickly lost grip of the blue shield as it clattered to the ground. There wasn't even a scream. There was no time for it. Axel was sure the strike would've broken the sound barrier if there had been enough room.

A large crater had been left it the wall, clearly marking where his head had collided. Blood was splattered against the wall as well, along with the red blood that was dying his blond hair a completely different colour.

Roxas was in total awe. Never had he seen someone swing a Keyblade with such force. It was almost like he had just met his favourite celebrity.

Axel couldn't blame him. It was pretty impressive, he had to admit.

"T-That was… Amazing…" Roxas stammered through his heavy breathing. The dark man merely shrugged. He tossed his Keyblade to the side, where it faded into darkness before it even hit the ground.

He walked straight over to the body, passing Roxas and Axel without saying a word. There was something different about him, though. He was actually slouched over and tired looking. Axel could hardly believe that he could feel tired. The man was an enigma, after all.

Slowly, he reached towards the hand of the crushed corpse. Secretly, he was admiring his own power. It was a power that he had gained without any help. He didn't know what his friends would say. All he knew was that he was going to save them. He pulled the cold fingers away from his main prize. He was glad to see that the crystal was undamaged, despite what it had endured.

"Thank you…" He said softly.

Axel smirked. "What, going already? The party's just begun." He said smugly.

There was a small change in attitude from the shadowy man. He seemed happy, for the first time since they had met in that small chamber. Roxas stepped off the ground and gave a small wave. Then, without anything else to do, the man opened a dark gate and stepped right through.

Though, there was a little guilt eating at him for the situation he was leaving. He thought his mission was complete, and yet… He felt that he wasn't quite done yet. He removed the mask from his face and the hood over his head, showing a long mane of brown hair, a strong looking face and two blue eyes.

"Hopefully you guys will help me out…" He chuckled.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys! Been a while, hasn't it? Yeah… I said I would be gone for a month but… I lied. A lot has happened since I finished NaNoWriMo… I got a job, There was Christmas holidays… But I haven't given up on this yet.**

**It is a little short, but my muse told me that it should end here. Don't worry, we'll get back to the others soon enough.**

**Thanks for reading! If you have any constructive criticism, please review. Even constructive flaming would be nice. Any questions, don't be afraid to PM me.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-FrozenXIII'sFire**


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